For the past 17 years, Golden Triangle residents have been treated to a sophisticated night out when they are encouraged to eat and spend guilt-free while helping the community’s five public schools: Curie, Doyle and Spreckels elementary schools, Standley Middle School and University City High School (UCHS). Most Taste of the Triangle visitors spend the evening tasting delectable treats created by local restaurants and socializing while participating in live and silent auctions. What many don’t indulge in, however, is a glimpse behind the scenes. Taste of the Triangle comes together entirely through the efforts of a stable group of volunteers — about 80 of them — who work to make the event a successful fundraiser for University City schools. Brook Feerick, president of Educate!, the nonprofit group that stages the tasting fundraiser every year, has chaired the event for the past three years and has been volunteering her time in some capacity or other in the community for 15 years. Raising money for schools, she said, is by far one of the easiest sells for fundraising volunteers. “We have so many people in the community who are passionate for schools and who know how much donating can impact the community,” she said. “It’s a very transparent event. We can see all that money going right back to the schools, and we make an effort to show how it positively impacts the community in general as well.” This event, Feerick said, is also unique in that it doesn’t take much coercing to get people to take time from their busy schedules to lend a hand. “Some other volunteer organizations and events I’ve worked with have been difficult in terms of getting volunteers, but this is different story,” she said. “People are really invested in the community’s schools, and it shows.” Work on Taste of the Triangle starts about one year in advance, Feerick said. A venue has to be found and reserved, donations have to be secured, commitments from restaurants have to be acquired, tickets have to be sold and an entire timeline has to be coordinated with area schools. A full-time nurse, Feerick said she donates on average about 10 to 12 hours per month to Educate! In the months and weeks leading up to Taste of the Triangle, some volunteers are giving 25 to 30 hours of their time per week to readying the event. The most challenging thing, Feerick said, is keeping the event fresh. “You have a tendency to want to do what you did last year because it worked,” she said. “But you want to keep people’s attention. You want to keep them excited and keep them donating.” Organizers hope to pull in $80,000 to $100,000 from the event. Last year, they netted $115,000 for the schools, including about $10,000 that came from the “fund-an-item” auction, where the auctioneer asks for audience members to volunteer to donate money to buy a specific item for the schools. This year, the item is the iPod Touch, and the goal is to earn enough money to purchase as many devices as needed so that every child has access to one in the classroom. For Feerick, the time and effort required to put on such an event seem to pale in comparison to what she gets out of it. Knowing she is helping the schools where her children have received their educations — two of her children are at UCHS, while one is attending UC Santa Barbara — keeps her coming back year after year because, as she said, “Studies show that kids who’s parents are involved do better in school.” She is not chairing the event this year and has let someone else take those reins. That doesn’t mean, however, that she can stop herself from being involved in the process from start to finish. “I just can’t seem to keep my mitts off of it,” she laughed.